Networking, strategic positioning and creative knowledge in industrial districts

2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciano Pilotti
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Useful Knowledge ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Industrial Leadership ◽  
Differentiated Learning

This work is the last part of a unitary framework of analysis, the first part of which was published in HSM, Special Issue, Vol. 18, No. 2. The principal aim of the analysis is the pattern of transformation of local production systems. They are discussed as a complex institutional form of the division of labour and knowledge between firms by means of institutions and meta-organisers as actors of a post-Fordist local economy. A specific production system is defined as a peculiar governance form of interrelations, mediated by cognitive resources such as internal/external competencies of a population of firms localised in a sharing context. In this way there emerges a process of internalisation of competencies through evolutionary networking in which efficiency is not simply an output but a fundamental input for both growth and innovation. Our aim is to describe the peculiarity of the institutional networking system in the Italian case of Northeast industrial districts, assuming that a specific industrial economy evolves on the basis of differentiated learning capacities according to a complex system of economic and social relations, encouraging the circulation of useful knowledge and information for the economic enlargement based on industrial leadership and firm networks: they form a complex and dynamic Multilevel Neural Network. Two main types of district emerge: the evolutionary district (e.g., Montebelluna, specialised in ski-boot production) and non evolutionary static and adaptive districts (e.g., Maniago, specialised in knife production), where we find limited leadership and limited division of labour between firms.

Evolutionary and adaptive local systems in North East Italy: Strategies of localized learning, open leadership and cooperation. Towards imperfect “communitarian capitalism”

1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Luciano Pilotti
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Industrial Leadership ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
High Level

We consider the nature of local production systems as a complex institutional form of coordination of the division of labor between firms as growing interrelations mediated by cognitve resources transferable by sharing internal/external competences. In this way emerge a process of internalization of competences thorought an evolutionary networking oriented to the efficiency of the system and not simply of single units. Our analysis is oriented to describe the peculiarity of the institutional system in the case of North East industrial districts. We assumes the North East industrial economy evolves on the basis of differentiated learning capacities, according to a complex system of economic and social relations encouraging the circulation of useful knowledge and information for economic growth and expanding both base of industrial leadership and spillover chain. The North East economy is well described in terms of a Multilevel Neural Network. This approach tends to revaluate local contexts as specific and active box of innovation resources, over simple considerations as factors of localisation, in other words a bridge between local and global resources. Learning processes and institutional contexts are variables that often seem to bind together economic and social factors. The orientation towards growth and innovation is due to the peculiarity of relationships based system existing in the district area, regarding the prevalent system (albeit incomplete) of learning strategies of both firms and institutions. This system is multi-purpose and oriented to produce through processes of both activities, self-coordination and self-learning. We have identified the “generator” of growth as meta-organisers. They comprise two classes of co-operators, not necessary alternative: innovative firms (as specialists, connectors, generators) and local institutions (private and public agents, or sub-systems of institutions), involved directly or indirectly in the process of innovation and/or to reduce costs of operations. In the last part of work we will show a simple model of differentiation of some industrial districts in North East of Italy: more efficient is the district with high level of intermediate institutions (private as firms and public as local authority and infrastructure) and with more large base of SMEs leadership. Two main forms of district emerge: the evolutionary district (for example, as Montebelluna specialised on ski-shoes business) and non evolutionary ones (adaptive district) (for example, as Maniago specialised on knives business), where we find a really limited base of leadership and constraints to enlarge division of labor between firms. We shall consider some elements related to district economies and their evolution as far as regulations are concerned, in order to show that the North East’s model of development is a peculiar form of “communitarian or social capitalism” for some aspects analogous to that of the Rhine area (a clear form of “corporatist capitalism”).

Historical Context of Agricultural Commercialisation in Ghana: Changes in Land and Labour Relations

2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Awetori Yaro ◽  
Joseph Kofi Teye ◽  
Gertrude Dzifa Torvikey
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Agrarian Change ◽  
Wealth Accumulation ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Global Capital

This paper provides a broad review of agrarian change in Ghana by highlighting the major developments in the agrarian political economy and their implications for agricultural commercialisation and its modifying influence on land tenure systems, livelihoods, production systems, social relations, and labour relations. While current land tenure arrangements and labour relations in Africa are often explained in terms of globalisation, we argue that the historical context of agricultural commercialisation in Ghana shows continuities and discontinuities in agrarian relations from the colonial period to the present. We also argue that changes over the years have blended with globalisation to produce the distinct forms of labour relations that we see today. The commercialisation of agriculture in Ghana has evolved progressively from the colonial era aided by policies of coercion, persuasion and incentives to its current globalised form. The expansion in the range of commodities over time necessarily increased the demand for more land and labour. The article contributes to the literature by providing great insights into changes in land and labour relations due to increasing commercialisation, and how these enhanced wealth accumulation for the richer segments of society and global capital to the detriment of the poor throughout Ghana’s agrarian history.

Composing Robot Production Systems: Japan as a Flexible Manufacturing System

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (7) ◽  
pp. 923-944 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Patchell
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Flexible Manufacturing ◽  
Manufacturing System ◽  
Flexible Manufacturing System ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Social Division ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Specific Skill

In this paper, case-study evidence of the composition of four robot production systems is provided to reveal the linkages between local, regional, and national social divisions of labour. The relation-specific skill epitomizes the sophisticated procedures used to compose production systems, and the four case studies provide evidence of the communalities and varieties of these procedures. The geography of the interrelationships of the vertical divisions of labour of design-supplied suppliers and of the horizontal division of labour of design-approved suppliers is discussed. The cooperation and competition within this social division of labour allows Japan to function as a flexible manufacturing system.

Italian Industrial Districts: A Triple Helix Pattern of Problem Solving

1998 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucio Biggiero
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Organization ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Triple Helix ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The University

Industrial districts are local hyper-networks of self-organizing and innovating small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), which, in terms of competitiveness and employment, play an important role in Italy's society and economy. Italy's industrial structure is deeply embedded in social relations, which are stratified and vary from territory to territory. The university, partially replaced by innovation centres, plays a weak role. For industrial districts to survive the current crisis, an industrial policy based on new theoretical approaches is needed, capable of analysing and dealing with emergent forms of industrial organization.

Firms' death rate and spatial agglomeration. Evidence on the resilience of italian local Production systems

2012 ◽  
pp. 101-126
Author(s):  
Giulio Cainelli ◽  
Sandro Montresor ◽  
Marzetti Giuseppe Vittucci
Keyword(s):  
Production Systems ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Industrial Clusters ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Spatial Agglomeration ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Urbanization Economies ◽  
Italian Provinces

The paper investigates the role spatial agglomeration has in affecting firm mortality of industries. In particular, the role of variety and specialization is addressed, along with the extent to which industrial clusters can be retained industrial districts. Empirical evidence is provided for a large panel of Italian provinces and manufacturing sectors, over the period 1995-2007. Urbanization economies, rather than localization ones, significantly diminish firm mortality of industries at the local level. The same holds true for industrial variety, even far from the specialization core. Industrial districts, instead, are neither safe nor dangerous places for firms, unless variety is controlled for. Preliminary evidence is also provided by the serial and spatial autocorrelation of firm' death and start-up rates.

scholarly journals The Hassle of Housework: Digitalisation and the Commodification of Domestic Labour

2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Huws
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Reproduction ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
New Strategies ◽  
Feminist Strategy ◽  
Gender Division Of Labour

This article revisits materialist second-wave feminist debates about domestic labour in the context of digitalisation. Using a differentiated typology of labour, it looks at how the tasks involved in housework have undergone dramatic changes through commodification, decommodification and recommodification without fundamentally altering the gender division of labour in social reproduction, drawing on recent research on the use of online platforms to deliver social reproductive labour via the market in a context in which reproductive labour sits at the centre of an intense time squeeze. It reflects on the implications of the commodification of domestic labour for feminist strategy. The author points to the inadequacy in this context of traditional feminist strategies—for the socialisation of domestic labour through public services, wages for housework or labour-saving through technological solutions—concluding that new strategies are needed that address the underlying social relations that perpetuate unequal divisions of labour in contemporary capitalism.

scholarly journals Building Industrial Districts: Do Subsidies Help? Evidence from Postwar Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-423
Author(s):  
Anna Spadavecchia
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
National Policies ◽  
Government Subsidies ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
National Institutions ◽  
Postwar Italy

The “historical alternatives” approach calls for research into the role of national institutions and public policies in the resilience or decline of industrial districts. Policies in support of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were launched in various Western economies in the second half of the twentieth century. This article focuses on the paradigmatic Italian case and investigates the importance of government subsidies for SMEs on firms located in a southern and a northeastern district, between 1971 and 1991. This discussion deepens our understanding of the role of national policies in the reemergence of industrial districts in the decades of the Second Industrial Divide. It also indicates the importance of firms’ utilization of subsidies and their ecosystem as complementary to the policy's effectiveness.

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